Beef stew

Hello carriers of shopping bags!

Long have i not seen thee! Here's a request from a friend of mine. I swear I have given her this recipe at least 5 times already LOL. Ok this time it is documented. I made this stew a few times already and I absolutely love it. It is easy, relatively cheap to make and can feed loads of people. Great to be eaten with rice or some bread. I'm sure it would make a great soup too.

We start with the meat. You'd need either lamb or beef. Doesn't really work with chicken due to lack of connective tissues. Unless you're willing to use chicken feet... But that's another show. Choose meat that has a lot of connective tissue, by that i mean the cheaper the cut, probably better it would be. But you don't want to cook forever so avoid briskets and go with chuck. Lean meat is probably not the best. You need the meat to break down and the connective tissue to form gellatine which thickens the sauce. This only occurs through long slow cooking process.

Cut the beef into bite sized pieces and add some flour, black pepper and salt. Not too much salt as you would still need to adjust the seasoning later.

Brown the beef in a large pot with some oil. Use a neutral oil with a high smoke point because you want the beef to brown up. Flavour town here I come!

Usually you'd this in batches, but i couldn't be bothered.

Once the beef is brown on the outside, turn down the heat and add carrots, celery, onion, and a bunch of garlic cloves. Cut them in similar sized chunks as the beef.

Add a can of chopped tomatoes...

Add water... Bay leaves, oregano, paprika, worcestershire sauce, black pepper

Stir for a bit and let it simmer for about 2 hours or until the meat is fork tender.

ENJOY!

Massaman curry

Hello handbag skeptics!

In keeping with the Thai theme, today's entry is massaman curry. I have actually never heard of this dish before today. I only stumbled upon it while I was googling for some Thai recipes.

Apparently, cnngo.com rate the massaman curry as the best dish in the world! I understand that the ranking is probably very subjective when you consider regional tastebuds and national attachments and so on, but to make it to number one is no small feat. Furthermore, i am intrigued by this new discovery. I have never seen this curry on a Thai menu before, so it makes sense for me to try it. 

After a few youtube videos later, I started to understand what this dish is all about and why it may well be the best dish ever. It is served prominently in the southern part of Thailand by the largely Malay community. It is unique because the dish is synthesized from 3 regions. Indian, Malay and Thai cooking. It has signature ingredients from Indian and Thai curries, but the method is very traditional Malay. It is very similar to a 'masak lemak' or 'lontong' soup, but with a stronger spice base and sweeter aftertaste. If I could pick a dish that resembles it the most, I would probably say Portugese Devil's curry.

So the ingredients separated into 2 sections; spice blend and you know, other ingredients (words they escape me)

Spice blend (bbc.co.uk)

15 dried red chillies

2 stalks of lemongrass

Galangal (8slices)

4 cloves of garlic

1 medium onion

1 tbsp shrimp paste (belacan in a curry? What?)

1 tbsp fish sauce

Grind these in a spice mixer; alternatively you can buy the preground versions bit as always fresh is better:-

Cinnamon stick 1tbsp

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp coriander seeds

3 cloves

4 black peppercorn

Mix all the above ingredients in a blender with enough water to make a thick paste. Smell that, it smells amazeballs.

Ok I'll mention other ingredients as we go along.

1. Heat 250ml of fresh coconut milk in a pot on low heat. Stir occasionally until you see some oil starting to come out of the coconut milk. This is called 'splitting' or 'breaking'. You'd need this oil for cooking the spice.

2. Pour about 250ml of the spice blend into the pot with the split coconut oil and cook the spice for a few minutes. If you are familoar with Malay recipes, this stage is crucial. First you want to fully cook the spices and the chili to release its flavor. Secondly you must ensure there's enough loquid in the pot to stop it from drying out and burning. So keep an eye on it. Once you see a dark film of reddish oil surfacing on top of the paste, then you know you're ready for the next stage.

3. Put the meat in. In this case I am using chicken thighs.cook the chicken with the spice blend for few minutes. Make sure it coates every single piece.

4. Pour in 250ml of fresh coconut milk (so in total you'd need about 500ml), 2 tbsp of fish sauce, 2 tbsp of tamarind paste, and 1 tbsp of palm sugar (i used brown sugar). You can add potatoes at this stage.

5. Simmer the curry for 20-30 minutes on low heat until the potatoes are soft and the chicken is tender as f*ck. Adjust taste using fish sauce and tamarind paste. The sauce should not be very thick but not broth thin. Well, it is really up to you I guess. 

Verdict

It is a very tasty dish I mist admit. Pair it with white rice and you have a winner. Is it number 1? Hard to say. But I can see why people outside of Asia might like it. It has that authentic Malay curry taste and smell, but without the face melting effect of hot chillies. Like I said earlier, if you're from Malaysia, dishes like this can be found in almost every state. You can compare it to devil's curry, gulai nasi dagang, penang masak merah, the curry for curry mee in Penang, and many others across the country. But none of them uses fish sauce as a replacement for salt and I think that adds an extra savoury tone to the gravy. 

Give it a try, it might not be alien to our Malaysian tastebuds, but it is certainly a refreshing take on something familiar.

Tom yam goong (prawn hot and sour soup)

Long has it been since I have seen you kitchen accountants!

I've not been experimenting lately since the beginning of the year had been very busy at work. I've been cooking, but mainly stuff not worth sharing about. And most of them are recipes that require very complicated techniques like smoking. 

So tonight I'm cooking tom yum goong. Arguably the most popular thai food ever. When I was growing up, thai food was not readily available, even in the north where I was staying. It was considered luxury food, and was very expensive. I remember this one restaurant in Sg. Petani called restaurant Hajjah. It was sort of an establishment for the Sg petani elites and government functions. If you get invited to dine there, you're minted, son. Nowadays, however, you can't miss the local Thai food scene. It has become synonymous with Malay food, although it is categorically not.

My goal is to create tom yum soup that is similar to the really good stuff you get at posh thai restaurants like Sri Ayuthayya or even established favorites like Thai express. I've experimented with a few recipes and ingredients and have found the one i think is the closest; and as always afordable.

Key ingredient for this dish is the prawn. You'd want the freshest, best looking river prawns you can find. Therefore if you're penny conscious, this dish may be a seasonal thing. I got my river prawns at Rm 33 a kilogram. In my wife's hometown Sibu, RM33 a kilo will buy you XL size prawns. But alas.. I am not Adrian Mole (don't worry if you don't get this reference people rarely do). So a handful of small to medium sized prawns came to about RM8. I am splurging, to be honest.

You would also need the following:-

Chicken stock

Lemongrass (if the good thai one is available then get that)

Kafir lime leaves (about 5-6)

Galangal (8-10 slices- see picture)

Juice of 3-4 lime (don't put all at once; limes are mysteriously inconsistent in their acidity)

Thai chillies (2-3 depending on how Asian you are)

Corriander leaves (because)

Fish sauce

Thai chilli paste

Oyster mushroom

Coconut milk (secret ingredient)

This is the brand you will be using. DO NOT GET ANYTHING ELSE THIS IS THE ONLY ONE YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT.

It's halal, don't worry zealots.

The steps are ridiculously easy:-

1. Heat the chicken stock. Alternatively you can bring water to a boil and throw some chicken bones in and let it simmer for a while. I have tried this recipe with and without the chicken juju, and i like this better. 

2. Clean the prawns by removing the heads carefully and cutting along the back of the prawns halfway to butterfly it. Remove the black gunk you find. Put the heads into the chicken stock. The chicken and prawn flavor is borderline majestic.

3. Add in the galangal, lime leaves and lemongrass. If you like your heat in the tummy, put in your chillies now, if you like it on your lips, put it in at the end (you didn't know that didja?!) simmer on medium heat for about 15 minutes. 

4. Add in the chilli paste, about 3 tbspoon, and the rest of the seafood. Leave it on the heat for about 30 seconds then turn off the heat. You don't want to overcook the prawns.

5. Add in some coconut milk, it should cloud up the soup. I guess less than a quarter cup should be enough. You don't really need to put in a lot, but the coconut milk really brings all the different flavors together. Add the lime juice and fish sauce to taste. Salt and sugar. Do not cook the lime juice because it will make your soup bitter.

6. Serve with some fresh corriander leaves for awesomeness!

Oh, you totally have to go with thai fragrant rice for this, it is just meant to be.

Ok, so costs. Not a cheap meal mainly because prawns cost a lot. I think

I spent approximately rm25 for 2 bowls of soup with high quality prawns. Not that different from what you can get at Thai express. But there's like 6-7 river prawns in there so i still think it's a win. The key to this dish only use fresh and natural imgredients. Don't use those bottled instant tom yum paste, and keep the cooking process simple. I used to make

Tom yum with onions and garlic and stuff and never realized i've been doing it wrong.

Please try this and be amazed!!! 

Meat sauce!

Good morrow haters of chick flicks!

The wife asked if I could make some meat sauce so she could take some to work tomorrow! Perfect excuse for some Bloggeration!

My personal pet peeve about the Malaysian approach to all Italian food is buying bottled sauces. Some taste alright I suppose but you'd still have to get over that off metallic taste and whatever preservatives they put in. These sauces are also not cheap, ranging anywhere from RM8 to RM10++ per bottle. And as I've mentioned before, more often than not, to offset the cost of the sauce people would buy the frozen 'mistery meat' ground beef to cook with.

So I propose we do the opposite, save on the sauce and get better quality beef. This recipe should be able to serve 5-6 people, as you would expect from a bottled version.

So I'm using about 250g of ground chuck, freshly ground at my supermarket. A can of tomatoes (you can't make sauce with fresh tomatoes, they are not plucked ripe), some herbs and pantry stuff.

I thought I bought the whole tomatoes version (cheaper by about 50 cents) but this will do as well. If you got the whole tomatoes version, just get a fork and mash it up in the can after you've opened it. 

First, sweat half an onion in a little butter. I would use olive oil, but we ran out. As soon as the onion is translucent, pour in the tomatoes and chopped garlic.

I don't fry the garlic in the oil because if it burns, you're going to have very bitter sauce. You'd also get a more pronounced garlic flavour this way. 

Next add in the beef and dried herbs. I'm using the classic trio of oregano, basil and parsley. 1 tbspoon each. You can also add bay leaf and I think sage would go with beef very well too. If you can find fresh herbs, then by all means. But dry keeps better and will always be there when you need it. A pinch of salt and 1 tbsp of freshly ground black pepper. Don't over salt because you can still balance it out at the end of the cooking.

Now the wait. Keep your heat as low as possible and cover. You'd want it to cook at low temperature so that the meat doesn't dry and the sauce doesn't burn. Oh before I forget, you must use a heavy base pot. This type is the most suitable for long slow cooking. I'm using an IKEA pot. Dirt cheap for what you get.

Keep stirring every 15-20 minutes or so and taste once in a while. It shouldn't taste 'beefy' like a steak. The meat and sauce must be fully cooked so that the meat tastes like the sauce and the sauce taste like the meat. That's some mantra.

Serve with pasta and enjoy! I love food that can be eaten with one cutlery.

Simple Cheese burger

Good evening purchasers of engine oils!

Today's entry is a simple one, but nevertheless another example of how you can save some money and achieve great tasting food without spending extra.

The emergence of the newfound trend of 'burger bakar' has transformed the meat sandwich into another product altogether in recent years. In Malaysia, burgers were often associated with dry flavorless unknown meat patties sandwiched between two sesame seed bun halves. Accompanied with the usual trio of cucumber, cabbage and tomatoes, you also get a healthy dose of mayo and chili sauce. And honestly, it was a great item until the inflation started creeping into the humble Ramli burger. Nowadays a simple burger can cost as much as RM2.50, whilst anything extra can set you up to RM5-6. The more revently celebrated burger bakar will cost you at least RM7-8 for a standard and will go up to to RM15 for specials. Whilst these prices are not bad when you consider what else is out there, it is important to look at what they are putting into your sandwich. 

I've stopped eating hot dogs for over ten years now for a very simple reason; hot dogs or commercially produced frankfurters are made from things that are not worth mentioning here. Just do a quick google and you will see what I mean.

So my biggest challenge this week is not about the cost as much as trying to use fresh beef rather than the 'unknown meat' variety.

Starting with the patty, I am going to use ground chuck. A lot of you who have eaten burger bakar may have noticed that you often found small pieces of bones in your patty. The reason being is that the meat used for these 'commercially prepared ground beef' come from unused parts of the cow and these may contain bones. Ground chuck comes from a fattier part of the cow so you would get juicier burgers. If you are not sure what to get, just ask your butcher, and make sure the meat is freshly ground.

Notice the red to white ratio in the beef. If you buy those frozen ground beef, it is mostly white (fat and sinews). The sinews  are the unchewable part of the beef that can't be eaten in burger form. So more reason not to buy from Mr. Ram. My recipe is very simple: salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder, cumin and corriander seeds (ground). Mix all the ingredients with your hands and roll into small balls. Flatten into that familiar burger patty shape.

My favourite topping for burgers would be onions, caramelized of course. Chop half a large onion and cook them on low heat with some butter. Add a pinch of salt. Keep stirring to stop the onions from crisping up. Normally you won't have an issue if you do a large batch, but with a small one, you need to keep moving them around. When the onions are soft, add a splash of worcesthershire sauce. They're done.

You can cook the burgers on a grill, but I am making only a couple so, a pan is fine. Use a stainless steel or cast iron, not a non-stick. Because you want the brown crust don't you? That's the ticket to flavourtown. Melt some butter and cook your burgers to your preferred doneness. Do not squish the burgers when you cook them. You'll just make them dry. 

The paprika will make the burgers look a bit dark but nothing to worry about. 

Now for the cheese. Mozarella. End of story. Spend a bit on some moza slices (about less than RM1 per slice) and you'd be amazed at the result bro. The trick to melting cheese is very simple. Place the cheese on the patty while it is still on the pan finishing its cooking. Splash a bit of water (careful, hot fat) and cover for about 20 seconds.

That's some creamy looking melted cheese man!

Assemble the usual suspects!

That's it! Took me less than half an hour from start to finish and cost about RM4-5 per burger. A bit higher than your roadside fare, but certainly cheaper than the burger bakar establishments with their bone chips in patties and chewy sinews.

Enjoy and keep cooking!

Hailam chicken rice

G'day father figures and role models!

Today's entry is kind of a knee jerk reaction. I was watching the Asian food channel when I saw datuk Jimmy Choo talking about his favourite food which is Hailam chicken rice. I was going to make lunch anyway so i thought I'd check out some recipes on the interwebs. Found a few under Hainanese Chicken Rice and for a lack of cultural understanding I am going to assume that Hailam and Hainanese 'probably' refers to the same recipe. For now. Don't get your knickers in a twist.

Continuing on from my previous Chinese themed recipes (see kailan oyster and stramed fish) I'm afraid this is another one. And it's kind of great because the kailan dish goes great with this, and if you've tried the steamed fish, some of the methods are very similar.

So ingredients (serves 3-4 hungry peeps)

Half a chicken 

Ginger

Garlic cloves

Cucumber

Rice

Chillies

Light soya sauce

Sesame oil

Ok here be stepz:-

1. Weird thing out of the way first. You have to extract chicken oil. As you are trimming and cleaning your chicken, save the excess skin and fat. Put them in a shallow pan over low heat and render the fat out. What? You got problem wid dat?? 

2. Place the chicken in a pot and cover with enough water to submerge it. Oh try to leave the chicken as whole as possible. Don't cut it into small pieces yet. Put 4-5 slices of ginger (young ones), and 3 cloves of garlic.

3. Bring the water to a gentle simmer and turn the heat to low. Continue simmering for about 15-20 minutes. Turn the heat off and cover. Leave the chicken in there for 10-20 more minutes to finish cooking. It is very important to low and slow the chicken in order to get that juicy meat texture. Hard boiling will just dry out the meat and make it tough. Notice that no salt is used at this stage. 

4. Gently remove the chicken from the pot and put it aside to cool. Using a skimmer (get one at japanese random object shops like daiso) skim off the gunk you see floating on top of your broth. Alternatively, use a strainer and transfer the broth through it to ensure you have a clear and clean liquid. Take about 2 cups of the broth to use as soup and add some salt to it. Very easy.

5. Now for the rice. The key here is both aroma and flavor. You get flavor from the broth but you get the aroma from the fat. So start by frying sine finely chopped garlic in 2 tbsp of the rendered chicken fat. Add the rice (soaked and rinsed until water is clear) and stir until the grains are covered in the fat. This will ensure that your rice will be nice and fluffy and not soggy. Transfer everythg into a rice cooker. Add in the chicken broth at 1:1 ratio. 1 cup rice = 1 cup broth. But if you want softer rice i guess you can put in a bit more. Add some salt and let the rice cooker do its magic.

6. You're almost there. Now you need to make the chilli dipping sauce. I made more than i needed so feel free to reduce the amount of ingredients. 4 large red chillies, 4 bird's eye chillies, 4 cloves of garlic, some ginger, sugar, salt and some broth to tie it all together. Just adjust the sugar and salt until you get the right balance. Squeeze 2 tbsp of lime juice right at the end and stir.

7. I removed the chicken meat from the bones to make it easier to eat. I really hate how chicken rice shops just splinter the bones into the meat and make it hard for people to eat. Sliced some cucumber and garnished with herb of the month; corriander.

8. Soy seasoning: crucial stuff here. Since the chicken is not seasoned, the saltiness from the soy sauce won't overpower the chicken flavour. I used about quarter cup of soy sauce and mixed that with some of the chicken broth. Added some sliced ginger, and about a tbsp of sesame oil. Check for taste, it shouldn't be overly salty. Pout the mixture ober the chicken just before serving

So there you go! The dish is quite simple to make but there are a lot of steps involved. The key ingredient here is the chicken broth / stock which goes into everything. So one way to shorten your cooking time is to have this on hand, as well as the chicken fat. Trust me, the chicken fat is crucial. Don't skip it or you might as well forget about the whole thing. 

So economics. Half a chicken cost me about RM7 and the rest of the ingredients are mostly pantry stuff (the ligjt soy in particular is a convenient little addition to my fridge nowadays) so I'd put it at about RM12 total. Serves 3-4 people while eating out you'd probably pay about RM6-8 for a plate of chicken rice. Papa Rich (scumbag kopitiam) charges RM10++ for a plate (i think it is more) which is ridiculous if you ask me. So the savings are not bad if you are willing to spend over an hour watching over rendering fat. BOOM!

Kailan (chinese broccoli) in oyster sauce

Hello breadwinners and househusbands!

This week's entry is not a really big cost saving dish, but it is a great dish to have up you sleeve if you want a delicious restaurant style vegetable dish to eat at home.

I've tried many versions of this dish and i normally eat it as a side to a plate of hainanese chicken rice. A fair bit of warning though, this dish is slightly on the salty side, so you need to be a bit careful with the measurements and not go over the top with seasonings.

Kai-lan or chinese broccoli is a great vegetable for its nutritional value and flavor. It is slightly on the bitter side, so you'd normally see it paired with salty components like salted fish or oyster sauce. The malays (or thai) often cooks it with salted preserved mackerel (tenggiri masin) but i prefer this version better.

Begin by preparing your ingredients as follows:-

A bunch of kailan

Oyster sauce ( i use adabi)

1 large clove of garlic sliced thinly

1 teaspoon of roasted garlic flakes (optional but makes a big difference in flavour)

1. Cut off the stems of the kailan and peel away the tough outer layer (about 1-2 mm). Cut them into bite size pieces. I usually leave the leaves whole unless they're too big. If you are cooking the hong kong kailan variety (pricey) then the stems are tender enough to be left whole.

2. In a wok, heat up some water and add a pinch of sugar and a few drops of oil. Begin by cooking the stems in hot water until they are tender. Then drop in the leaves and cook them for about 2-3 minutes. Remove from heat and arrange on a plate.

3. Heat some vegetable oil on low heat and fry the garlic slices. Keep an eye on them because they burn quick.

4. Add the oyster sauce. Depending on how much kailan you have, i would say 4-5 tbs should do it. You're not making a sauce, more like a dressing. Add some water (about quarter cup) and allow the mixture to thicken

5. Add about 2 tbsp of sesame oil and the garlic flakes to the mixture and turn off the heat

6. Pour the mixture onto the begetables and serve immediately for awesomeness

That's it! Easy right? Now this dish can go between RM10-15 for this amount of veg. I reckon i spent less than RM4 on the whole thing, even accounting for the pantry stuff. So if you're looking for a great and fresh veg dish, you can't go wrong with this one!